As an Admissions Recruiter at Moore, Eleanor Farley spends most of her time visiting high school art classes, community colleges and participating in portfolio review events. Her territory includes all of Maryland and Virginia.

While she’s on the road several days a week, she enjoys making “small works” out of paper and clay that are now being featured in the “Focus on Moore Staff” display case near the dining hall at the College.

“I make little sculptures out of paper clay that are then painted with acrylic and nail polish and I also make cut-out sketchbook drawings (drawn in ink and then water colored),” Farley said. “All of my work is based on household objects, food and pop-culture characters. The pieces in ‘small works’ represent a visual vocabulary that are frequently referenced in larger artworks.”

Farley also creates larger, abstract works usually built out of found objects or refuse and then covered with different materials, from sequins to band aids. In addition, she makes large-scale collages out of drawings or found objects, such as thumb tacks, glitter or magazine clippings.

“My work started in college when I was pretty tight on funds and I’d go through the studio building and collect thrown out materials or recycle my old sculptures to make new ones,” she said. “[My work] is about excess and pop-culture and how it builds up physically and psychologically.”

Farley graduated in 2010 with a BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Before coming to Moore, she was a pre-school art teacher in Chicago. She was also a nanny throughout her time at MICA. Originally from Richmond, VA, she has been working at Moore since August, 2012.

“I really enjoy the travel aspect of my job,” she said. “It has been really exciting to work at an arts institution with people who are a little bit more like-minded. And I get to meet a variety of students and counsel them through the portfolio aspect of their application.”